Beast Reviews Soulcalibur VI

Where does your soul lean? Are you capable of looking into the darkest of evil and come out unphased or would you just give into the evil and become one with it? SoulCalibur VI brings back the Stage of History once again as you combat many opponents in order to destroy or control the legendary Soul Blade. You ready for a fight in this review?

This is a retelling of the series where we return to the 16th century to uncover other truths between our famed combatants. This will be in Story: Soul Chronicle where you will play through 20 characters see their side of the story that is all connected. Some good and some evil, but we are just observing to find out the hidden truth in this spiral of chaos.

The Good:

To me, the best titles were Soul Edge, Soulcalibur and Soulcalibur 2. Soulcalibur IV finally brings the glory of what the Dreamcast had. The engine has some nostalgia to it where the fighting is fluid even if some characters don’t flow as much as they used to be and that is fine. It feels evolved and helps you relearn things especially with the soul charge that is a double edge sword. With Soul Charge activated you will lose health until you unleash its full power.

The new addition to the franchise is the Reversal edge that not only works defensively countering attacks. It also causes a slow-motion ability where you have to choose the right attack that will either clash against the opponent or connect and destroy their armor. You can strategically use this move in a pinch, but be a few steps ahead of your opponent. Either side step out, or block is the only way to counter a Reversal edge.

The character creation makes a come back with the usual deep customization and sadly some already taking it on a disturbing level. In Libra of Souls, you will have to make a different character for this journey driven story mode. In here you will meet the characters from the main game and earn gold that you will use for expeditions. It takes money to travel and the further you go the more it will cost. Keep in mind that each area will have a different difficulty level of enemies. So, watch your level and makes sure you don’t bite more off than you chew.

This journey mode also allows you to not only use items and buy mercenaries but you can use other weapons to change up your fighting style. You will have all the weapons at your disposal or you can buy new ones. Don’t overwhelm yourself and master the weapons that you are comfortable with.

If you want proper Training Libra of Souls is the best place to go since it gives you full details on attacks, counters, defense and learning to handle your falls. Then you when handling the expeditions and different rules in combat like a slippery floor or no ring outs. You will be on top of the game to handle other modes like Arcade and Rank matches.

In terms of Rank matches it is quite fun and so far no rage quits or much lag, but it is still early on. Once in it is the best of 3 and if you win two rounds you move on same if you lose two rounds. It keeps things steady for those that are unaware of fight rules or known as the “run back”.

If you are not ready for the Ranked match then stick to casual and spar with someone to help adjust to your skills. It all comes full circle as a decently made fighting game.

The Bad:

What is up with the lengthy load times? It is ridiculous to think even with a digital download I wasn’t expecting to wait so long to go from the title screen into the game. I was told it is because of the Unreal 4 engine that causes this to happen. I wonder if there will be a patch for that?

A friend of mine mentioned that the characters and the background do not match up together. He feels he is playing an HD remastered Dreamcast title with a PS4 built background. There are some image glitches I see where weapons are not in the hands just floating over them, especially with your created character.

The main tutorial needs a bit of work. I feel for any fighter a good training tutorial is crucial in a game no matter how simple it is. Trial or lesson plan where you can see the movesets and if done successfully you can move on to the next.

However, since Soulcalibur VI is simple buttons and combos. I guess it is not necessary to dive that deep into it? Unlike more complex fighters like Virtua Fighter or DOA. Still, something similar to Tekken 7’s training would have been a nice touch.

Conclusion

SoulCalibur VI is solid and keeps me invested in the training, Libra of souls and Soul Chronicle. It has been a while since had this much fun and I am glad. SoulCalibur always had a special place in my gaming heart ever since it first debut on the PS One and then years to come. The return of the custom characters makes it personal when going into ranked and casual matches which is fun. The story lore is amazing to get into and being that it is a retelling to dive deeper really captivates my attention. With a strong replay value not just in Ranked and Casual Matches but with Libra of Souls and Soul Chronicle, you will have enough options.

I give Soulcalibur VI 4.5 paws out of 5. I hope you enjoyed this review please check out our video review and our live streams by clicking here. – Beast Out –

I am a Beast trying to get his game on. Living by the ways of the Konami Code for many years until I decided to share my knowledge and opinions of the gaming world for you mortals. I hope you enjoy the content that we provide here! - Beast Out -